HONOLULU — The William S. Richardson School of Law is proud to announce that the Hawaiʻi Innocence Project has received a $10,000 grant from the Hawaiʻi Justice Foundation.

The Hawaiʻi Innocence Project was established in 2005 through the California Innocence Project of California Western School of Law. It is part of a national network of innocence projects in which law students work alongside practicing criminal defense attorneys to seek the release of wrongfully convicted persons.

Through the project, law students and professors from UH Mānoa‘s law school and public and private criminal defense lawyers in Hawaiʻi collaborate with California Western School of Law faculty and students and the California Innocence Project‘s staff in San Diego to investigate and litigate Hawaiʻi criminal cases where there is compelling evidence of innocence. Potential cases are first screened in California and then students at UH Mānoa‘s law school pick up the investigation.

The project at the UH Mānoa law school is led by Professor Virginia Hench. For more information about the project, contact Hench at 956-6547.